The tweet’s spin on “postpones” has no connection with the actual AFP report or reality.
The actual news is that Hungary’s Parliament will ratify the accession along with the rest early next year.
Next year is a bit over a month away.
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I would like to just say how ‘brave’ Vladimir Solovyov is. He has courageously given up his Italian villa for the motherland! You lot over there, you know the impoverished peasants in the backwaters of Siberia; you give up your lives for the pursuit of reunification of the great Russian empire! Uber ■■■■■■■ of the highest order.
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Yep. What a hero. What a bullshit artist. But what an interesting diatribe. Projection.(1) We now know what his previously private, secret life goals were - to eat and drink till he gets cirrhosis of the liver, with “small diamonds” in a beautiful villa on Lake Como. Now that he lost it all, he’s as Mad as a cut snake. Lol.
(1) 3.2.
Speaking of which, here is Navalny’s lauded documentary on Putin, the one that got him a dose of Novichok and prison in Siberia. Well worth the watch.
Putin’s palace. History of world’s largest bribe - Eng Subs
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These people hate Ukrainians……and the feeling is mutual 
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There is a lot of discussion on here about what the average Russian citizen thinks of Putin, the war and Ukraine- my guess is the large majority of Russians support Putin and hate Ukraine
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Lawry, I think everyone on here shies away from discussions around such strong wording as “hatred” and “vengeance” and “blood feuds”, knowing how destructive these terms are and how liberal and enlightened and advanced we really are when we look at our own reflection of ourselves in the mirror of our own hubris, thinking we are ever so superior, thinking these are “second-world” and “third-world” human afflictions in this day and age. What we don’t recognize, when operating in the safety and comfort of our privileged, advanced world-view, is that this is how the world still is in large parts, these are other people’s real-life experiences, that we can’t banalize the world’s reality to that extent, as we are so use to doing from our comfort zone. Maybe we are too far removed from war, pain and suffering and killing for it to really register strongly for us. So, the ongoing debate about “demonization” and hatred continues on our most comfortable forum.
Sorry about the rant, maybe I am projecting…
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It’s a great post and I don’t like using the word hatred but unfortunately it’s true. There is fierce bitter and undeniable hatred between Russia and Ukraine and by extension that includes a large proportion of the people in each country. I wish I could sugar coat it but that’s the truth as I know it. As I’ve posted before my dad is Ukrainian (well he’s an Aussie now) he was born in Lviv and spent several formative years living in Rivne before escaping and settling in Australia. I grew up hearing stories about the Russians from my dad and my grandfather told us horror stories about the Holodomor - he saw people eating babies to survive. Between 3.5-7 million Ukrainians were starved to death - and Ukrainians have a saying ……”never forget the Holodomor”
Growing up here in Australia, my dad was often harassed by the Russians and Soviets. This may shock some Australians but it happened. It was most likely the KGB. They would call our house to intimidate my dad - telling him he was a Soviet and he had to return home. They said he’s two sons (my brother and I) were both Soviets too. They told him we all had to go back to the USSR. The calls started as infrequent and then got to once a week. We changed our phone number to silent - but the calls continued. They would talk in Russian. So as a child we learned first hand and via stories about the Russians. So apologies if my language seems harsh talking about hatred - but that’s how I’ve been moulded
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I suspect the vast majority are disconnected from politics. Putin spent 20 years grinding the population into an understanding that political engagement doesn’t matter, because Putin will deliver for you. Now that he’s not delivering, is conscripting the population and sending them to die, that trust has been broken.
But as we in Victoria learnt during covid lockdown, social norms develop quickly and are very powerful.
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No need to apologize. I empathize and can understand how you feel.
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Results are in for Poll Post 2366. Question was where will the next big offensive thrust from the AFU will come from next. There was no time limit for said thrust inherent to the question. Here are the final results:
Analysis: An overwhelming majority of Blitzers believe that it is a masterful misdirection, the hammerfall will come from elsewhere on the front. Only a very slim minority of 16% think that Crimea is next on the chopping block, myself included. 5% (2) think neither. More tellingly, there were five Arthurs who did not like any of the poll options. This poll therefore conclusively shows that the amount of Arthurs is steadily on the rise.
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That’s sad
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Sorry about the delay, returning to the direct NATO involvement discussion after having given priority to some recent posts that help explain better where I am coming from.
My impression is that there is relatively little support here for direct armed intervention, partly because most expect that Ukraine does not really need it, partly based on concerns about nuclear escalation and perhaps partly because of reasons similar to those discussed below. So it may be worth discussing such reasons.
The regime is pretending that attacks on its troops in Ukraine are “trying to destroy Mother Russia”. Claiming to believe that is now compulsory since the four regions were annexed and the regime is offering lots of TV coverage claiming that the Russian populace fully back “their” leadership.
They also claimed near unanimous support from the Ukrainian populace in the territories they annexed, including Kherson which they abandoned very shortly after.
That has certainly increased belief outside Russia that Russians are beyond redemption. But there is no evidence support for the war has increased as the destruction of Russian troops and equipment in Ukrainehas increased and as the areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces have diminished. The growing panic and hysteria in Russian internal propaganda is itself evidence of that.
Intuitively that does not appear an implausible result of waging a war unsuccessfully.
It is not at all obvious why you, or anybody else, might believe that the opposite has or will happen here?
What is your argument for your assertion that a very counter-intuitive opposite result from what one would expect to be the natural result?
Nope. What I said and think is that direct military support would lead to a quicker Russian defeat with less total casualties on both sides than letting the war drag on just supplying aid.
That doesn’t mean it would be quick and easy. Just that the alternative of continuing as at present will take longer and be more difficult.
I am less confident than some others here that anything will be quick and easy.
You have not presented any argument for your assertion that direct involvement would result in more deaths.
It seems obvious to me that stronger forces on the Ukrainian side would lead to proportionately less Ukrainian deaths than the increase in deaths among other allied armed forces. Ukraine has had to mobilize a large citizen’s army very quickly and it has been taking heavy casualties. Training supplied by other countries is helping reduce the casualties. So would direct participation.
Less obviously, it would also lead to less Russian deaths because the regime would have to more quicklyabandon throwing in more canon fodder just to preserve its own existence. Either because it would have to capitulate sooner or because it would get overthrown sooner.
It would be nice if you actually acknowledged you were wrong earlier when you said:
Meanwhile you can checkout the NATO deployments requested by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for yourself because they do indeed see an increased risk of their countries being attacked as a result of failure to stop Russian fascist aggression. They are dependent on NATO to provide security.
As for Finland, it is joining as a security provider:
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I think most of us can use logic and reason so do not need to be swayed by such emotive terms that are favourites of propagandists, Moreover, many of us have a negative reaction to propaganda.
I think everyone on this thread (and the 20,000+ previous posts) solidly supports Ukraine. You do not need to post material that is usually used to sway opinions of people who have a poor capacity to reason for themselves. In fact doing so is, as your post implies, counterproductive.
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Great thread on tanks and UAV’s
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Fun conditions in the trenches.
Water table seems pretty high, you have to have a sump area lower than the shelter and constantly scoop the water out.
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Take this with a big chunk of salt but I’m optimistic
Now this on the other hand should be interesting
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